


You're not fooling anyone here

by Tyleet



Category: Heroes RPF, Star Trek RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyleet/pseuds/Tyleet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five people Zach couldn't fool, and one time Chris was the only one who got it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're not fooling anyone here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [adele_sparks](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=adele_sparks).



> Please do not copy or repost my work on any other site, even if it is credited under my name. I do not give permission to have my work hosted on any other website.

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |    
[heroes](http://tyleet27.livejournal.com/tag/heroes), [pinto](http://tyleet27.livejournal.com/tag/pinto), [star trek](http://tyleet27.livejournal.com/tag/star%20trek), [stop your obsessing](http://tyleet27.livejournal.com/tag/stop%20your%20obsessing)  
  
---|---  
  
 

**Sendhil Ramamurthy, in bed**

Sendhil gets a call at three in the morning. He checks the caller id, swears, smooths a hand down Olga's arm, and goes into the hallway to take it.

Zach cuts off Sendhil's "Do you know what time it is?" with "What do you know about Vulcan sex?"

Sendhil blinks. "You woke me up at three in the morning to ask me that?" He shouldn't be surprised, really. He's been getting phone calls like this since Zach signed on for Trek, and they're only getting more frequent now that they're in fight training and Zach's actually on set and freaking out. It's been a constant stream of "Do you know how long it takes eyebrows to grow back?" and "Do you know Zoe? Zoe's going to be in this movie! Yay!" and "You know when you bitched to me about how playing Mohinder meant you couldn't shave? _Suck it,_ man, they're shaving my face every five minutes because apparently Vulcans don't _have_ stubble." He's getting used to it.

Zach laughs. "You were asleep? It's only three in the morning!"

"And I have a five o'clock shoot tomorrow," Sendhil grumbles, relishing Zach's gasp just a little bit.

"I'm sorry," Zach says contritely. "I'll call you back tomorrow?"

But Sendhil has to sprint long distances in the desert wearing prison fatigues tomorrow, and the thought of facing Zach's scifi happiness then does not sound at all appealing. He sighs, and leans against the wall. "Well, I'm awake now. Hit me."

Zach does. "Sendhil, you are not going to believe the number of meetings I've had about my character's sexuality in the past forty eight hours. They're obsessed. And insane. Have you heard of pon farr, ever? Or double-ridged dicks? Because it's _insane_."

"Well, sweetheart, I hate to break it to you but you're doing _Star Trek,_" Sendhil stresses, sliding down the wall until he's settled comfortably on the floor. "You jumped into the loony bin with both eyes open."

"I know," Zach groans, "but oh my god, you have no idea. I have to have chemistry with Zoe but not too much, enough to make it sexy and appealing for the mainstream audience, but not enough to alienate the old fans, and it's just insanely complex."

"Like the whole thing with Milo and Adrian last year. 'Sell the sex, but not too much.'"

"It's worse than that," Zach continues, pretending he doesn't have the enormous competitive streak Sendhil knows he has, "I have to have chemistry with Chris at the same time."

"Wait a second," Sendhil stops him. "You've met Chris now?"

"Yeah." Zach stops, and Sendhil can hear the smile in his voice.

"Well? Haven't you been worried about what working with him was going to be like?" he prompts, and Zach gives a shaky exhale. Sendhil looks at the phone in surprise.

"That's the really weird thing, because yeah, I was worried, but even though I'd never heard his name before this, I've had actual physical interaction with him," Zach says really fast. "I even talked to him about the role before, I just didn't know it was him I was talking to."

Sendhil raises an eyebrow even though he knows Zach can't see it. "Uh huh."

"No, seriously. I was at this party and this really hot guy comes up to me and introduces himself and asks me all these questions about Kirk and JJ and shit because he's going to audition, only I was marginally tipsy at the time and didn't connect the dots right away." Zach's babbling, but there's something self contained and happy about his babble that sets off warning bells in Sendhil's head. "But he seems like a great guy, we're building this rapport together that I'm 98% certain is going to give us some really great chemistry to work with. JJ's thrilled, because apparently I have to have chemistry with Chris but not make it gay except it should be sort of gay because apparently Kirk and Spock were the original It couple and making them not gay for each other would be untrue to Gene Rodenberry's vision, or something."

"Don't tell me I'm not going to be your internet boyfriend anymore," Sendhil says automatically.

"Baby don't be like that," Zach chides briskly. "We'll always have Mylar."

"Yeah." Sendhil pauses. "So what I've got so far is that he's really hot,you have great chemistry, and your characters are gay for each other. Did I miss anything?"

"It's not like that," Zach says totally unconvincingly. "Mind out of the gutter."

All it takes is a "What's it like, then?" and Zach's off, and he can say what he likes but Sendhil knows that delighted edge to his voice, and he hopes this Chris guy is worth it.

He "mms" and "uh huhs" where he's supposed to while Zach rants on about his hair, Kiwi accents, a pair of eyes bluer than motherfucking Elijah Woods', Leonard Nimoy, his dearly missed eyebrows, this totally inappropriate joke Chris made that Zach really wanted to be offended at but couldn't be, the meaning of life, and Chris Pine's eyebrows, which are apparently nearly as ridiculous as Zach's own. All he says when he hangs up the phone is "Good luck, Zach," but he really means it.

*

**Simon Pegg, On Set**

Simon's not interested in their business. Really, he's not. He's on set comparatively less than everyone else, he's only got a few scenes with both Zach and Chris in them, they're not his usual set and he really couldn't care less whether they fail miserably at pretending they don't want to shag like queer pink Energizer bunnies.

But really, when everyone's all sitting bored but pretty on the side of the set waiting for lighting to do their thing so they can take this scene again for the millionth time in a day, he can't really help but pay attention to the epic failure at subtlety going on just to his left.

Zach and Chris are sitting in director's chairs with about a foot of space between them, and Chris has one foot hooked around the bottom rung of Zach's chair. He's also trying to steal Zach's book away--which involves much grabbing of Zach's arms and accidental groping of his chest, Simon can't help but notice--but Zach keeps holding it at a distance and hits Chris with his water bottle whenever he gets too close.

Really. Even if Simon wasn't a self-confessed busybodying gossip, he would have to be either blind or have completely skipped third grade in order to miss that kind of romantic subtext. He perks up his ears.

"I already think you're pretentious," Chris is protesting with a goofy smile, "I can't judge you for further pretension."

"I'm not worried you're going to _judge me,_ Christopher," Zach sniffs. "I just don't want to give you my book. Because I'm reading it. And you were an English major at Berkeley: clearly I do not win the pretentiousness prize in this conversation."

"But I'm bored," Chris complains.

"Pull up your big girl panties and get over it," Zach says resolutely. "Bring your own entertainment next time."

Why, when you're doing it for him? Simon wonders. But Chris apparently believes him, because he huffs out a sigh—come on—and actually leans over and rests his head on Zach's shoulder. Simon misses the next bit of their conversation, because the looks on their faces really says it all. Zach freezes, and doesn't look down at Chris' head, but isn't looking at his book either. He's staring out into space with a tiny, contained smile on his face, repressed just enough that you can see why he makes such a great Spock, but not so far down that you can't see the teeth-sparkling, lens-flaring dazzle of a grin underneath it.

Chris is looking up at Zach, head nuzzled perfectly between Zach's neck and shoulder, and his face has the exact same guilty but hopeful look on it that Simon's Labrador gets when she's chewed up a script.

Simon doesn't catch what Chris says next, but he knows the breath of it must have tickled the underside of Zach's jaw because he shivers and parts his lips. He also lets his guard down, because Chris steals the book right out of his hands.

"Hermann Hesse? You snob," Chris raises his head to inspect the book, but doesn't lean back towards his own chair.

"_Narcissus and Goldmund_ is the most perfect book to ever be translated into English," Zach breathes, two inches away from Chris' face, and yeah, Simon might be on the edge of his chair now too, but what do they expect? Putting on a show like that in a public space.

"You've clearly never read Nabokov," Chris murmurs, one of his hands resting on the arm of Zach's chair for balance, the other flexing on his own knee like he wants nothing more than to reach out and grab whatever he can.

Zach inhales unsteadily, and Simon can't take it anymore.

"Sweet Jesus Christ on a pogostick, just _shag already_," Simon explodes, startling them so badly that Chris actually falls out of his chair.

Yeah, not his business. But Simon can't help but notice the way Zach leaps to help Chris up with a hint of smugness. Really, who do they think they're fooling?

*

** Karl Urban, at a bar **

The first time Karl suspects something is in a bar in Tokyo, during the publicity tour. They're all pretty hammered with jet lag and sleep deprivation already, and once actual alcohol is added to the mix Zach starts rambling about fan responses and the changeability of fame and _Heroes_ and how he freaked out when he first realized what "Sylinder" meant and then he thought it was the most awesome thing ever. Karl starts fondly in on his Lord of the Rings days, Zoe reads an excerpt from this Anamaria/Jack Sparrow fanfiction she has bookmarked on her iphone and Simon gets an automatic victory with _Hot Fuzz_, so it's not until they're pretty far into the conversation that Karl notices Chris isn't talking much. When he does start talking, though, everybody notices.

"What about Kirk and Spock?" Chris blurts out. "Do people ship Kirk and Spock? We should have a weird nickname too."

Everybody except Chris cracks up. He gets kind of red in the face, keeps saying "What? What's so funny?" but Karl can't keep it together long enough to explain, because what the bleeding fuck has Chris been doing for the last year?

"You didn't know that?" Zach demands, looking outraged. "How could you not know that! We're like the original homoerotic deal! I had _meetings _on the subject!"

Zoe looks like she can barely breathe. "So did I," she gasps out, clutching Karl's arm for support.

"_Why was I not a part of these meetings_?" Chris looks thunderous.

"I guess JJ knew you'd be a natural," Zach says slyly.

"Baby don't feel bad," Zoe does this thing where it looks like she's trying to be soothing but it doesn't really work because she's giggling too much, "It means he had faith in your acting."

"Yeah," Karl laughs, "that's it. Your_ acting_."

It's not until much later in the evening—or earlier in the morning, as it may be—that Karl hears them bring it up again. They're all three leaning against the bar, and Karl's standing just far enough away from them that he can hear them pretty well without needing to be part of the conversation.

"We could call it Kirock," Chris suggests, licking his lips in concentration. "Spirk. Kock."

"That," Zach says in a warm voice, "is the most idiotic thing you have ever said."

Chris lolls his head back, baring his throat, and for a second Karl thinks Zach is going to kiss it, but that would be ridiculous because Chris is straight, isn't he? He takes a second to worry about Zach and unrequited love when Chris tilts his head towards Zach.

"What about Spork?" he says finally, and Karl may not be able to see Chris' face but if he's any judge of body language Zach doesn't need to worry about unrequited anything.

Zach giggles and puts his hands on Chris' hips before remembering that he's not supposed to and yanking them back. "Spork it is," he laughs a little nervously. There are two distinct red spots high on his cheeks, and maybe it's because he's drunk and maybe it's not, but the moan he gives when Chris brushes them with his thumbs can only mean one thing.

"Awesome," Chris says roughly, and suddenly he's in motion, one arm around Zach's waist propelling them both towards the exit, or the bathroom, or somewhere else Karl probably doesn't want to follow them to.

Karl finds Zoe. "So don't take this the wrong way or anything, and I'm pretty sure I'm about to sound fucking loony, but I'm pretty sure Chris and Zach are fucking right now," he tells her.

"They are?" her eyes get really wide, and then she's beaming Zoe-bright and clapping her hands together. "Simon!" she shrieks across the room. "They did it!"

"Wait a second, you knew about this?" Karl tries, but then Simon's there, and when he finds out what's going on he grabs Zoe's hands and jumps up and down and they shriek together like goddamn twelve year old girls. He's pretty sure Zoe, at least, is being ironic.

"John Cho owes me twenty bucks," Simon says smugly.

"JJ owes me _eighty_ bucks," Zoe laughs.

"You guys had a _pool_?" Karl wants to know.

Zoe and Simon exchange sly looks. "Oh yeah," Zoe smirks. "And it's really not too late to cut you in."

*

**Joe Quinto, via the Internet**

When Joe shows up at Zach's house at nine in the morning the day after Olivia, he's prepared for any number of things: Zach still asleep in bed, Zach tired and sweaty after a morning run, Zach asleep in bed but not alone, Zach curled on the couch with a tub of ice cream a la Sasan. What he doesn't expect is to have Zach open the door fully dressed, covered head to toe in dust and what looks like blood.

"What happened," Joe says in a voice that means "who do I need to kill?" but Zach just smirks at him.

"Photoshoot with Tyler."

Joe exhales. "Again, seriously? Ugh."

"Your jealousy is unbecoming, Joseph Quinto," Zach says airily, and lets him in.

Zach knows his opinions on that clichéd illiterate cokehead piece of shit that shouldn't have the right to call himself a photographer when clearly all he wants to do is porn, so there's no need to rehash them now. Joe settles for rolling his eyes and settling in at the kitchen table. Then he drops the bomb.

"Have you talked to Chris yet?"

Zach groans. "Joe…"

"You haven't, have you?" Joe presses. "Zach. You are not fooling me. You're not fooling anyone. _Call him_."

Zach collapses to the floor.

Joe stares. "Wow. I was not expecting that."

Zach groans again. "I spent the last five hours running around in the desert getting rocks and rose petals thrown at me. I have dust in places you don't want to know about. I can't have this conversation right now."

"When can you have this conversation?"

"_Never_."

"Zach, you need to talk to him."

"No, I don't."

"Did you have a fight?"

"We weren't really together."

"Bullshit." Joe is relentless. Zach might get paid a lot of money to lie on camera, but he's never been able to lie to Joe when Joe wants to know something.

Zach sighs and muffles his face under one arm. "He wanted to come out and I didn't."

"Wait, _come out _come out?" Joe is shocked, then angry. "That's a huge step, and one he definitely can't make for you. And then he pulls this? Shit, Zach, that's not—"

"No! No, no," Zach stops him. "Not that. Nothing career affecting. Just to our friends."

"Oh." Joe pauses. "Zach. You do know they already all know, right?"

"_Not_ the point."

Joe guesses it's not. He sighs. "What did you do."

"What anyone would do," Zach says in a falsely calm voice. "I channelled my publicist and ranted about my career, I yelled at him about making it harder for both of us than it needed to be, and then I told him that if he couldn't handle the closet he needed to get out of my life. And then I possibly insulted his masculinity, his mother, his sexual performance, and his face. Because I'm rational like that." Zach's chest hitches, and Joe pretends not to notice.

"And then he left?"

A nod.

Joe stands up and grabs Zach's phone off the counter. And then throws it at him.

"What the fuck?" Zach yelps, sitting up to glare.

"That sucks. That really, really sucks. But if what I saw on tmz this morning—"

"—you read tmz? Who _does_ that?" Zach sounds truly disgusted, but Joe has a fucking point here, and he's sticking to it.

"—if the pictures I saw on tmz mean anything, then Chris went out last night while you were frolicking in the desert. Out with a girl. Is that the mark of a man who wants to come out, or a man who wants to keep his boyfriend?"

Zach brings his arm away from his face, eyes wide.

"So call him," Joe finishes sternly.

Zach silently reaches for the phone and starts dialing. Joe's inner photographer takes a second to appreciate the sight and itch for a camera: Zach dusty and blood-smeared on the kitchen floor, curled around his phone like it's the most precious thing in the world. Maybe Tyler Shields is on to something, he thinks with some astonishment. Then Zach says "Chris?" in a slightly uneven voice, and Joe is out the door.

The next time Joe goes trolling for pap photos, he finds a new one of his brother. It's at a coffeeshop—not Lamill, Joe's already heard all of Zach's rants about how he can't get go to his favorite coffee place anymore—and Zach is just getting to a table. Zach's back is to the camera, but Chris is facing straight towards it, for once not trying to avoid the flash. This isn't really a good thing—the naked hope on Chris' face is there for all the internet to see, and Joe feels terrible about that. But the big brother is thankful for that expression. It means he bet on the right horse, and that's always a good feeling.

"It's gonna be okay," he tells his laptop screen, and hopes it will be.

*

**"The game is up, Sylar—" or Zoe Saldana, At A Party**

_Heroes_ is dying and everyone knows it, so Zoe's not really that surprised when Zach calls to tell her that the cast is having a "Farewell Ninth Wonders" party and would she please come and look gorgeous on his arm? Disappointed, maybe—the latest tabloid scare had her hoping her guys would get it together a little more—but not really surprised.

"You sure you want _me_ on that arm, sweetie?" she asks pointedly. "You don't maybe want to see if someone blond and blue eyed and stupid for you is free for a couple of hours?"

Zach plays dumb. "I would have asked Kristen, but apparently she's too good to beard for me now, or something."

"I am not your second choice beard, Zachary John Quinto," Zoe rolls her eyes even though he can't see. "And Kristen got married with the sole intention of pissing you off, everyone knows that."

"She's a slut," Zach agrees. "So, Friday at nine? My towncar, outside your apartment?"

Zoe pauses. "It's a closed party?"

"Just for you," he promises, but she doesn't feel like letting him off the hook yet.

"Then you should ask him."

Silence on the other end, and then a slow, exhaled "Zo.." and she can't handle that tone in his voice, so she flicks open the calendar on her phone and sighs.

"Say pretty please."

He goes so far as to add a cherry on top, but Zoe tells him she's known him too long to believe a bullshit story like that, and hangs up.

Friday night when she finds Zach leaning against her doorjamb with his best guilty puppy face on, she's ready to chew his ass out all the way back to Silverlake, but then they get to the car and Chris is grinning out of the side window.

She's all hugs and smiles for Chris, but she gives Zach a look that he immediately decries as "indecipherable."

It's okay all the rest of the way to the party, and it's even okay at the party, for a while.

There's a brief spot of something when Zach waves a hand at them and says "Everyone! My companeros. Zoe, Chris—this is everyone," and promptly abandons them, but he looks thrilled and Chris seems fine talking to Sendhil, so Zoe decides not to worry about it.

Zach is in his element, bouncing from person to person with obvious excitement, stopping here and there for hugs and quips and once to actually spin Hayden into the air. Chris gradually drifts back towards Zoe, and Zoe does her level best to mingle. The only people she knows personally and not professionally are Sendhil, Greg and Milo, who she was once in a very low budget movie with. Everyone else she knows by sight only, but they all look at Zach with the same possessive fondness she knows Trek has for one of their own. Zoe never watched _Heroes_, but she's sort of sad that it's gone, now. It's easy to see all the love here. She mentions as much to Chris, who makes a face.

"I'm not being cheesy," she protests, "I mean it."

"Yeah, totally," Chris says with a fixed smile, then turns so his mouth is close to her ear. "But I suffered through an hour a week of this for a year. And let me tell you--love, great as it is, can't fix _everything._"

"Says Mr. Princess Diaries 2," Zach says easily, suddenly appearing from behind Chris' shoulder. Zoe makes an uncomfortable "you caught us" expression, but Chris blushes a deep red.

"I didn't mean that,"

"Yeah, you did, but it's cool," Zach drapes an arm around both of them conspiratorially. "It _was_ a pretty shitty show," he confesses with a smile, squeezing Zoe's shoulders a little. "But we liked it. And," he continues, looking straight ahead at Greg who's coming up to them bearing a camera and a crazy grin, "you'd be surprised at all the messed up shit love can fix."

"Time to take one for the history books," Greg booms, and the whole cast jumps to attention.

"Mi, we're going first," Adrian calls out, and Milo slinks over from across the room and gives him a passionate kiss. Greg snaps a picture, Zach catcalls, and everyone applauds.

"_What the holy fuck was that,_" Chris asks loudly, his question coming through loud and clear after the applause, eyes wide.

"Tradition?" Zach laughs.

"Conspiracy theory scrapbook," Greg decides.

"Petrellicest," Adrian says lasciviously, and pretends to grope Milo's ass. "What's up next?"

"What else but more Petrellicest?" Hayden giggles, and leaps at Milo. Sendhil swoops in directly after, swiftly followed by Masi, who bends Milo backwards in the classical "soldier back from the war" pose, which makes pretty much everyone lose it.

Chris just makes another shocked noise, and grabs onto Zach's arm.

"This looks more like a general Milo kissfest than anything else," Zoe says lightly, pretending not to notice Chris digging his fingers into Zach's elbow, or Zach's eyebrows drawing together. "Is this a cast-only thing? Or can anyone join?"

"No, pretty much anyone," Hayden teases, and Milo presses both hands to his heart, wounded, before winking at Zoe in clear invitation. _Later_, he mouthes. "Sylar, you're up."

Chris is still holding tight to Zach's arm, and it's only with everybody's eyes on them that he lets go with an obvious effort that makes Zoe's heart want to break. You had to give the guy points for trying.

Zach hesitates, and Chris gives him a half-hearted grin. "You're up, Sylar."

Something softens in the line of Zach's shoulders, and then he's leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Chris' neck and kissing him with fierce concentration.

Zoe feels a sweet flutter in her jaded Hollywood heart and knows she's beaming like a loon, and Hayden's shrieking and Milo's laughing and saying he doesn't think he can follow that up, and Sendhil keeps saying _Oh my god I _knew _it _and Greg's snapping pictures like crazy and they don't stop kissing.

Chris' arms tighten around Zach and there's something strange and blissful about his face, and Zoe realizes that he's laughing, laughing into Zach's mouth.

*

**Chris Pine, at the Premiere of Star Trek XII **

It's nothing special.

It's Zach and Chris in twin tuxedos, in blue and yellow ties, respectively. They stop along the red carpet to talk with fans and to have their pictures taken, they beam at their fellow actors and say they owe everything to JJ.

Neither of them brought a date.

Zach sits next to Karl in the theater, and Chris between Zoe and Anton. And if Zach's seat is directly behind Chris', and if Chris reaches back to squeeze their hands together tightly before the movie starts, no one thinks anything of it.

After the show, they mingle at the public party and dance together at the private party, and the reporters have nothing special to report and their friends don't wonder if there's anything different about them tonight.

The next day, the magazines talk about how gorgeous Zoe and Milo were together, and the internet talks about how adorable Anton's outfit was, and what a fucking shame it is Pinto didn't seem to be back together.

There's only one picture of Chris and Zach looking anything less than totally innocent at the premiere, and that was snapped by Joe Quinto. It's nothing special either—they're hugging, but it was taken just after the credits rolled and everyone else is hugging in the aisles too.

Their arms are loose around each other. Zach is whispering something into Chris' ear, and Chris is just starting to smile back at him. They both look warm and relaxed. Joe thinks it's a good picture, so he sends it to Zach whose PR department puts it up on his website, where Zach stumbles across it a week later.

It ends up printed out on copy paper and slipped into Chris' copy of _Steppenwolf_, which he's reading in small intervals in the makeup trailer for _The Green Lantern_, with these words penciled on the back:

_we win. thanks for saying yes. love z. _

Chris smiles, slips the paper back into his book, and gets ready for the rest of his life.


End file.
